CHAPTER 8It's Who You Know—Protégés and Professional Development
In 2018, 46 percent of male managers said they were uncomfortable mentoring, socializing, or meeting one-on-one with female colleagues.
In 2019, that number rose to 60 percent.1
A survey released by LeanIn.org and SurveyMonkey in 2019 found that senior-level male managers were nine times more hesitant to take work trips with junior women than they were with junior men. The previous year, they were only twice as hesitant to travel with women, compared to men.2
Multiple studies released in 2019 and 2020 came to the same conclusion: Men were less likely to mentor women than they were before the #MeToo movement. GEN's survey results showed a similar trend related to race following the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. White respondents to GEN's survey were less likely to state they had a mentee who was a person of color than they were before 2020.
This is a pernicious problem.
In 2020, about 86 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs and over 70 percent of senior executives were white men. When underestimated individuals find the majority of white men hesitate to meet with them, they lose access to one of the most influential keys to advancement: time with senior leaders.
The Seniority Gap
Even in organizations where men and women report equal access to mentors, men's mentors are far more likely to be in senior roles. Reviewing GEN's survey results, men were twice as likely as women to state that they had been offered ...
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